


Time Judged All

by Jen425



Category: Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider OOO, Kamen Rider Zi-O, Tokusatsu
Genre: Angst, Developing Relationships, Eventual Fix-It, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gen, M/M, Multi, Time Travel Fix-It, Zi-O timeline bullshit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-24
Updated: 2020-05-24
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:01:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23771968
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425
Summary: His first thought when he finds himself still ghostly yet in his human form is “I shouldn’t be here.”800 years pass like that.(It’s 1995 and Eiji is six years old when Ankh first tracks him down.)(It’s 2010 and, a week after he would have been free of the seal, a man in an odd coat appears and says “you don’t belong in this timeline.”)
Relationships: Ankh/Hino Eiji/Izumi Hina
Comments: 9
Kudos: 25
Collections: Villain of My Own Story Exchange 2020





	Time Judged All

**Author's Note:**

  * For [borrowedphrases](https://archiveofourown.org/users/borrowedphrases/gifts).



> Sometimes you’re tired and don’t want to put effort into names and you just call your Ankh fic Time Judged All. Also, if Zi-O can fuck the timeline then unfuck it in the finale, I can use it to fix the ending of OOO.
> 
> Also just to be clear Hina and Eiji know of each other but just don’t feel the need to seek each other out.

His first thought when he finds himself still ghostly yet in his human form is “I shouldn’t be here.”

His second though it “how the fuck _am_ I here?”

His third thought is “the King never looked this old”

The main thing he does is watch. Watch the world.

Eight hundred years that he’d missed the first time. That his imposter had wandered for.

There’s sadly not much worth watching.

(He remembers a time where his greatest desire was to see beauty again, but now… now he just wants to see his people.)

What he realizes though is that when he flies, he sheds feathers, and when he focuses, every now and then, he can still touch the world for a few moments. A part of him can’t help but imagine that Eiji would call it reaching the world.

He was always big on that metaphor.

800 years pass and he can at least move unseen but it’s a hundred times more hellish than being sealed for having something to truly miss.

  
  
  


It’s 1995 and Eiji is six years old when Ankh first tracks him down. A little lonely chick playing in the yard and being reprimanded for ruining it. He looks at Ankh and simply says “bird?”

The world changes around Ankh because he found one of _his_ people and they can see him. It almost feels like no time has passed even though this child is not but still might become the person he knows. Maybe.

Who the fuck knows? This isn’t his world, not without OOO. But this is his Eiji, a chick with the wrong name and both a brightness and guardedness to him that’s different to the ones he grows.

Eiji calls him “bird” and Ankh snaps “my name is Ankh, chick!”

And Eiji says “okay”.

He collects Ankh’s feathers and smiles more than he ever does at his family. Ankh knows enough of his idiot’s story to not be surprised.

  
  
  


Ankh tracks down Hina in 2000, and she’s 8 years old, and she sees him too. She doesn’t say “bird” but she asks “Onii-chan?”

He can’t help but laugh at that.

“No way in hell,” he says. She blinks. Tilts her head.

So small, such a little chick. But still his. Possibly. Someday.

She says “no, Onii-chan wouldn’t wear that” and she asks “who are you?”

Ankh scoffs and introduces himself and she smiles.

“I feel like I should know you,” she says.

“Of course,” Ankh replies. “You’re mine.”

  
  
  


It’s 2002 and Hina’s parents are dead and Ankh takes her flying. She says the sky is the most beautiful thinks she’s ever seen.

Ankh says that he used to agree with her but doesn’t say how now the most beautiful thing now is two people who don’t and might never exist. Instead he says what Eiji or some other overdramatic and heroic might have said.

“Beauty is memories,” he says. “Hold this one close.”

Hina blinks and nods.

She starts smiling more, after that.

  
  
  


It’s 2005 and Hina and Eiji both call him out on who he is, or at least for knowing them. He smirks and tells them that yes he knows them from another world.

Eiji asks what he was like and Ankh tells him he was an idiot.

He tells Hina she was still freakishly strong.

Eiji just smiles and Hina hugs him with that ridiculous strength.

  
  
  


Eiji grows up with all his desires met but the one that fuels him and it is the most ironic and frustrating thing to witness.

He thinks—

_“Thank you, Ankh.”_

_“To protect the world of anyone I can reach.”_

It’s so incredibly wrong, this boy who isn’t Eiji but could be. Who never glares at Ankh or looks sadly at his broken remains without knowing Ankh is bearing witness, who instead smiles at him and slowly breaks through his barriers a second time.

It was 2008 and Eiji said “I feel like I could do so much more.”

And Ankh said “you could be so much more. I know it’s what you want.”

He also says “you’re an idiot for waiting.”

Maybe that was a mistake.

  
  
  


It’s 2009 and Eiji is flying off to Africa because he’s just as stupid and stubborn as he always was even if he isn’t the void of desire that Ankh had met or the sure hero he would become.

Hina is sewing his feathers into her clothing.

Hina grew up with her desires taken care of, her dreams encouraged instead of mocked. She doesn’t have the sadness of having lost her brother, or of losing Ankh.

But when he insults her, she fires back, and when he’s gone for a long time to take care of this boy who isn’t quite his idiot, she asks where he’s been.

He tells her while visiting, a month after Eiji leaves, that he might be gone for a while, taking care of his idiot. She nods and it’s truly odd how in this world he still knows her and still knows Eiji, and they might know each other through his words, but they don’t know each other, might never.

Before he can leave for Eiji, however, he’s called by a somewhat familiar person. One of the mastermind of that incident that almost got Eiji killed and had some red pirate wearing the powers he’d given Eiji.

“You shouldn’t be here,” he says. “They’ve already unwritten OOO’s Story.”

Ankh scoffs.

“I’m not just Eiji’s helper, you know,” he comments. “You look older than you should be.”

The man scoffs.

“I have no world or time,” he says. “But this… this is all broken, and it’s the new kids’ faults.”

Ankh scoffs.

“I kinda figured,” he says. “It… Build or Ex-Aid or someone else?”

The man hmms, hands in his pockets and looking at the sky.

“Build made the tipping point,” he says. “Not that I blame him with a World like that. But I think it might be this kid called Zi-O, he’s the center of it.”

Ankh turns away from the man.

“Well,” he says. “I don’t care much either way, as long as my people are fine.”

“No one’s fine if I’m right in my suspicions,” the man says.

Ankh is already flying back to Eiji.

  
  
  


(It’s 2009 and Eiji is shaking quietly in Ankh’s arms and repeating “I couldn’t save anyone” in the same whispered tone he would say “I’m sorry, Ankh” in while clutching his broken medal after nightmares, in another life.

When Eiji was home Ankh remembers still so clearly that Hina would catch it and hug Eiji gently and that one day they’d kissed, too. It generally calmed them both though sometimes they would talk or both start crying. And it somehow didn’t make Ankh envious but just… sad, that he couldn’t be there too.

In this life, Ankh kisses him to shut up the noise as much as to comfort his person and Eiji just clings harder, but he doesn’t pull away.

Ankh doesn’t mention it again because it doesn’t matter. Eiji is his either way.)

  
  
  


(It’s 2009 and Eiji says “I was just borrowing my father’s power, wasn’t I?”

And then he says “I never want to do that again.”

And Ankh can’t help his smirk as he says “then take it with your own hands.”)

  
  
  


It’s 2010 and Ankh is congratulating Hina for getting into the school she wants and turning around to watch Eiji with a careful eye as his destiny changes rapidly.

Hino Eiji, his mother’s last name. One thing that doesn’t change is that Eiji’s father is a piece of shit.

Hino Eiji…

It’s like the man Ankh had first met, just a little to the left. Because this Eiji didn’t lose his desire.

He changed it.

In a way that honestly boggles Ankh’s mind, yes, but Eiji’s never been someone Ankh could predict.

If Eiji says he wants to become a politician to do better than his family and reach out his hand as far as it can go, Ankh will believe him. It’s stupid and optimistic and exactly the Eiji he once knew.

  
  
  


It’s 2010 and, a week after he would have been free of the seal, a man in an odd coat appears and says “you don’t belong in this timeline.”

And Ankh replies “yes, I know.”

And the man smiles ruefully and clutches the book in his arms a bit tighter to him. Ankh pretends not to hear him mutter “must be nice to have your king’s affection even when he doesn’t know you and what you’ve done for him.”

But then he looks up and there’s a dangerous smirk on his face. He tosses two objects at Ankh, and Ankh finds himself surprised to catch them with no effort, where they would usually go through his hands if given by anyone but Hina or Eiji.

“Give those to Hino Eiji,” he says. “He’ll find use of them.”

“And why should I trust you?” Ankh asks. Woz shrugs.

“You can’t.”

And Ankh scoffs, but pockets the watches anyways and turns to fly away.

Before he does, though, he says “the king wasn’t worthy of OOO, and he didn't give a damn about me” and he hears the man’s intake before he adds “Eiji was, but for most of our time together we fought. I betrayed him. But… it might have been less necessary if I just… was a bit more honest with him.”

He leaves without another word.

  
  
  


It’s 2010 and Eiji takes the objects from Ankh’s hand and they form the faces of TaToBa and TaJaDor and Ankh can’t help the breath that escapes his lungs as he watches and thinks about this man who isn’t OOO but could have been.

  
  
  


It’s 2011 and Hina has no reason to stay in Japan. It’s a bit more annoying now to keep flying between her and Eiji, but it’s a fact of his existence.

Both are doing so well in this world where OOO doesn’t exist, he thinks, sitting on the windowsill of Hina’s room and eating the popsicle she’d given him, glad for yet another reason that he can interact with the world through his People.

“I think I love you,” Hina says, and he blinks, almost choking on his popsicle. “Which is weird, maybe a bit, when you look like my brother. And when I’ve known you for so much of my life but you haven’t changed.”

“In this world, you met me when you were eight,” Ankh offers. “But I met you about a year ago, once.”

_“You made me realize I was loved enough to be mourned, dying enough to be alive,”_ he doesn’t say.

Hina just laughs.

“Maybe,” she says. “Are you ever going to tell me about this other world?”

Ankh is silent for a long moment.

_“They’ve already unwritten OOO’s Story.”_

_“It might have been less necessary if I just… was a bit more honest with him.”_

“You’re sadder,” Ankh finally admits. “It’s my fault.”

The old Eiji would say it was his for letting Hina get dragged in but Ankh knows. He was the one who used her brother’s body and chose her brother’s face as his own even now. 

Hina shakes her head.

“I don’t think so,” she says. “You’re the brightest presence in my life. And I think, from what you’ve told me, you mattered to the other me, too.”

Ankh… doesn’t know what to say.

_(“You’re going to die?”_

_“You think gonna die?”)_

He goes back to her first comment.

“You’re mine,” he offers. “I think… I think that means I love you, too.”

“Oh,” Hina replies.

She kisses him.

(A part of Ankh’s brain remembers that she kissed Eiji the first time, too.)

  
  
  


It’s 2011 and Ankh doesn’t entirely give a shit about human norms but he knows what matters to his People so he tells Eiji what happens.

Eiji just smiles and says “thank you, Ankh” and “I had a feeling you loved her, too” and he asks “Could you tell _me_ more about your world?”

And again Ankh thinks of what to say.

“You didn’t even have a fucking desire when I met you,” he says. “But your dream was still as big as the world.”

Eiji laughs.

  
  
  


It’s 2012 and Eiji kisses him, too. And Ankh tells Hina, too. She asks to meet Eiji, and it’s oddly amusing how she has to call him “your idiot” because he hadn’t dropped his name.

In another world it would be 2012 and that red pirate would fake killing Eiji and finally have Hina and Eiji admit their desires to each other, in the aftermath.

In this one, the other half of that scheme appears once more.

“This world is dying,” he says. Ankh scoffs.

“I figured as much,” he says.

“It’s all converging,” the man replies. “That’s the problem. Riders deserve to exist, but we aren’t meant to.”

And Ankh says “I know” and resolves to keep his People from each other.

“Still,” the man says. “Time and dimensions leave echoes behind.”

  
  
  


It’s 2013 and Ankh doesn’t know how to tell Hina working at the Dan Foundation is a bad idea. It’s 2012 and she ignores him because it’s an amazing job.

In another world, it would be December of 2017 and the world would be ending and Ankh can only faintly remember everyone Eiji met because he doesn’t much care. But he remembers Dan Kuroto.

And he recognizes a man who reminds him so much of the King.

  
  
  


It’s 2018 and the man in the stupid jacket wraps him in his stupid scarf and says “I’m afraid you must stay out of this one. It’s all for the glory of my Demon King, I assure you.”

It’s 2018 and when he’s let go he finds that Hina and Eiji have finally met.

  
  
  


It’s 2019 and they rush to help everyone they can as the world ends even though they’d never spent a year fighting Yummies and Greed and whatever the fuck Maki was, and Ankh is stuck following them.

He wouldn’t want to be anywhere else, he think, as the sky fills with gold.

Not in any world.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


It’s September 1st, 2018, and Ankh wakes up from what he knows is more than a dream between his People.

He thinks, he _hopes_ , that the kid really fixed things.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!!!


End file.
